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now playing: the rural alberta advantage

TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2011|

Posted by: David Pitz

The Rural Alberta Advantage have a song about a tornado, allegedly inspired by one of the deadliest storms to ever rip through singer Nils Edenloff's native Province (try and guess which one). There, in the cellar of "Tornado '87", a couple battens down the hatch, though it's evident that their shelter may not survive the swirling black skies above. Their relationship lies on the brink...they might not survive the forces bearing down on them.

Like the fateful cyclone spinning through this metaphoric tale, The RAA are an impassioned outfit that place a majority of their songs teetering on the same sort of brim. Theirs is a rough and tumble, folk pedigree; a mix of string snapping acoustics, frenetic percussive rhythms, and gravel dusted vocals that draw genuine comparisons to Jeff Mangum's Neutral Milk Hotel as it cycles through. It's an urgent and enthralling approach, as our latest concert video release can attest, with songs like "Stamp", "Muscle Relaxants", and "Drain The Blood" sounding like the could collapse under the weight of the trio's gale force playing at any moment. Yet there, swirling in the madness, clashing against the band's more aggressive tendencies, is both a woozy glow of keyboards and the endearing stories that they seem to hold in their grasp. Somehow, someway, the songs survive...they aren't blown away, though we won't be able to say the same for you in the wake of our latest concert video release captured from Baeblemusic Takes Texas at The Phoenix in Austin last month.